This chapter serves as an introduction to the main Sisters within the Sorority of Violence. I'm not really sure what else to put up here.
Chapter One: Dramatis Personae
As cultists of Khorne, the Sorority of Violence was made up of every sort of warrior found in almost any fighting force, from the cunning to the cruel, the lucid to the psychotic, and the idealistic to the cynical. Every Sister, however, was united in their efficiency in spreading death and mayhem wherever they wandered.
Like the current Mistress of the Sisterhood herself, known only as Massacre. Crafty, quick-thinking, and sharp-tongued, Massacre was also aware of her noticeably more desirable looks as compared to her Sisters, which she exploited to her advantage many times when negotiating with men, speaking with them in such a way that they could not decide if they wanted to spend a night with her or strangle her once a deal was made. Giving herself an air of authority by wearing the distinctive greatcoat and cap of an Imperial Commissar with their unfortunate previous wearer having his skull hanging from her belt and the hat's insignia replaced with the Mark of Khorne, the dirty-blonde Mistress waged war with the original Commissar's custom-made storm bolter and an eviscerator, weapons that reflected her paradoxical nature of being a femme fatale and a destructive butcher, all the better to kill her foes.
Within the Sorority of Violence existed the title of High Priestess, obtained only by killing 400 enemies, currently held by a mere two Sisters. For High Priestess Carnage, however, this supreme exhibition of skill is not enough. Armed with a chainaxe, a bolt pistol, and a literally murderous temper, the black-maned 21-year-old seemed to radiate this need to strive further, meticulously making small scars on her arms to tally her kills and endlessly recounting them. Being blind in her right eye, which was now a milky white from a past battle, has only strengthened her conviction that she is destined for, in her own words, "something big." Massacre considers this mere arrogance, yet Carnage fights on all the fiercer to gain Khorne's approval.
The other High Priestess was much different from her younger contemporary, being a cold, brooding blonde named Cutthroat. Though she wielded a bearded power axe and fought with ruthless efficiency, Cutthroat's most effective weapon was the hideous disfigurement she received a few years ago, when she was stabbed in her right cheek. Though it healed, it could not be stitched back together, resulting in a gash deep enough to make her teeth and what few muscles remained visible. This was in fact the catalyst for her current demeanor, realizing the shock value the scar afforded her in battle. What made it especially unnerving was that Cutthroat looked younger than she truly was, and many of her victims froze at the jarring nature of it upon seeing her for the first, and last, time.
Although Massacre, Carnage, and Cutthroat were undeniably skilled warriors, they could not match the sheer savagery in fighting exhibited by the blonde Frenzy. Reduced to an almost feral state thanks to heavy combat drug abuse, Frenzy often loped around battlefields on all fours, spoke in a quick, minimalistic rasp, and appeared almost malnourished in build, with heavily bloodshot eyes to match. Shredding through her foes with a pair of clawed gauntlets, Frenzy took to wearing a modified respirator mask, allowing her to ingest more aggression-enhancing and pain-numbing stimulants through tubes in the mask's gaskets leading to her nose in the heat of battle, every snort degrading her more and more into an animalistic killing machine.
Some people develop a thrill for killing, but the brunette Lacerator takes that concept to a new level. Clearly enjoying herself while fighting, it was completely regular to hear loud, hysterical laughter ring out whenever she struck a successful blow, taking horrific delight in butchering enemies. Even still, she could be amused by almost anything, from the mundane to the extraordinary, though few things outside of battle made Lacerator laugh harder than recounting those very fights themselves, often getting tears in her eyes and unable to continue. It was truly telling of how little sanity Lacerator possessed when other Sisters often thought of her as "weird," even in a cult dedicated solely to violence and slaughter.
If Lacerator could be considered the Sorority's "happiest" member, Bloodmaw, coincidentally herself a brunette, was the exact opposite. Named for her practice of smearing blood around her mouth and keeping it there, Bloodmaw would always take an opportunity to mock, insult, and criticize other Sisters, for no real reason beyond, "because I can." Though the Sorority had a rule of not killing each other, a fair amount of Sisters wanted to break it solely because of Bloodmaw. Few, however, could deny that should a Sister try and fight Bloodmaw to the death, there was a fairly good chance of losing, a point she used that often started nonlethal fights anyway. None knew that Bloodmaw possessed a singing voice like liquid gold, which she never shared with anyone.
While Bloodmaw never let another side of herself be heard, the dirty blonde Huntress sparingly let any part of herself be heard. A laconic observer of life, believing energy devoted to speech was better reserved for fighting, and that listening was the best way to truly learn anything of value, Huntress earned her name for her eerily calm demeanor in battle, coolly hacking and hewing opponents with a power sword, as though she were hunting prey. Recognizable by the black she wore, most prominently a cadet hat and a scarf normally hiding the lower half of her rather narrow face with its somewhat beakish nose, Huntress's other signature were the strings of teeth tied to the butt of her laspistol and pommel of her sword, taken from every eighth kill she made.
In a way, the free-spirited, kid-at-heart, mousy-looking brunette named Knives was the "little sister" of Huntress, wanting to "kill in Khorne's name and look awesome while doing it." What this meant was that Knives fought with a self-perceived sense of "style" as though she were a gladiatrix, slaying her enemies in a way most pleasing to an imaginary crowd, much like how she believed Huntress did. To fulfill that goal, she was armed with twin combat knives affectionately named "Blood" and "Gore," with several more dirks and daggers carried on the back of her belt and in her boots. Unlike her older friend, Knives was far more sociable, and few Sisters found disliking her difficult, unless it was in games of Five Finger Fillet or knife throwing, because she was the Sorority's reigning champion in them.
Like Lacerator and Bloodmaw, Knives found her opposite in a blonde named Executioner, who was morose and driven by a need for vindication as a result of witnessing her mother's death in person. Executioner earned that name immediately afterwards, getting her revenge on the killer with such merciless cruelty it could only be called an execution rather than a fight. Since then, she has fought every battle like her last with the same power fist that killed her mother and the previous owner's severed hand worn around her neck, spurred on by the woman's dying words of "kill more than I could ever hope to." If any outside the Sorority were to sympathize with her, it would increase in knowing that a genuinely attractive young girl like Executioner had carved a St. George's Cross-like pattern around her mouth as a form of flagellation, mourning, and commitment to her mission.
For another blonde named Legion, her tendencies as a loner were not based on grief in her recent past, but because, from a young age, she has been hearing voices, from which her name developed. Legion, in a cult of Khorne of all places, was a shrinking violet, rarely interacting with her Sisters in fear of being stigmatized for her oddity and instead lost in conversations with the Voices, unless she was trying to silence them or, occasionally, receiving oddly genuine advice. In war, however, Legion was an entirely different person, the Voices in her head becoming a screaming cacophony demanding bloodshed, and she can only act on their will, becoming one with the Voices, even referring to herself in plural, in a fit of mindless, berserk rage.
Many more Sisters existed in the Sorority of Violence, from the gaunt, jaded, brunette surgeon named Bonesaw, who always longed for a chance to fight, but could not as often as she wished because she was in charge of healing the wounded, to Frostbite and Skadi, a pair of thick-as-thieves half-siblings who often philosophized the nature of Khorne, war, and existence in general over scavenged or stolen liquor. With such a diverse degree of personalities, it was a wonder how they all managed to stick together, but they did, out of a common commitment to a violent, bloody definition of freedom, survival, and battling the enemies of their murderous deity with unrelenting brutality.
The most noticeable change I've made here for everyone who's already read this before is Huntress's and Knives's friendship being played up. Knives doesn't really worship Huntress as much as the description lets on, but the two are pretty close pals, almost sisters in their relationship.
I've also described Bonesaw, Frostbite, and Skadi in more detail, and the other main change is correcting the written shape of Executioner's mouth scars, which is a St. George's Cross, like what is seen on the English flag, not a St. Andrew's, which is on the flag of Scotland.
Anyway, that's it for the revised character introduction, now the story begins proper in the next!